Whenever I’m looking to buy a new picture book for Shaarav, I most often than not find myself gravitating towards Julia Donaldson because I know for the fact that one can never go wrong with a book written by Julia Donaldson and illustrated by Axel Scheffler. The book “Room on the Broom” is yet another gem by Julia Donaldson with an utterly delightful rhyming story about a witch who has an eventful journey on her broomstick. It’s a masterpiece from both narrative and illustrative perspectives. The book captures the typical Julia Donaldson’s warm and fuzzy repetitive text and Axel Scheffler’s immensely appealing and utterly mesmerizing illustrations which has every bit of whimsy what the sweet little story demands. And for these reasons, admittedly, “Room on the Broom” has no doubt become one of Shaarav’s favourite books to which he likes to return to again and again.
Room on the Broom
What’s the story?
“Room on the Broom” is a spellbinding story about the windy adventure of a grotesque-looking but delightful and kind witch who was flying merrily on her broomstick with her cat. But along the way she meets with several misfortunes of losing her belongings due to the gusty wind. However, she gets back all her belongings with the help of various animals whom she meets in the process of finding her stuff. The good kind-hearted witch continues to befriend and give them room on her broom for exchange of her lost items until disaster strikes and the broomstick snaps into two mid-air due to overload. While the other passengers fall into the bog, the witch is encountered by a terrifying hungry red dragon who threatens to eat her for a snack. But, fortunately for the friendly good witch, her new friends come to her rescue and frighten away the dragon. Feeling happy and grateful she casts the spell “Iggety, Ziggety, Zaggety, Zoom” to make a “Truly Magnificent Broom” which has both style and comfort for all its riders.
What did we like about it?
You can never be disappointed with this legendary author-illustrator duo Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler and I’m sure “Room and the Broom” too will definitely appeal to you and your child alike. This sweet little story of a kind and caring witch with repetitive elements, rhythmic and lyrical text and beautiful illustrations makes for an excellent read-aloud story. The book offers lovable characters and wonderful rhymes giving room for different expressions and voices making it a fun and enchanting read for children who will fall in love with the story almost instantly. The outstanding illustrations are also very appealing and eye catching. Altogether this a book perfectly fits for both oral and visual senses making it a fantastic and engaging read.
Shaarav loves its animated version that’s there on Amazon Prime Video. The video version of “Room on the Broom” is a real hit with Shaarav and he has likes to watch it over and over again. Though the story in the video is slightly different from the book version, it outshines the book a bit with its music and a higher sensory appeal.
Book Details
Written by: Julia Donaldson
Illustrated by: Axel Scheffler
Published by: Macmillan Children’s Books
Genre: Fiction Picture Book
Book Type: Board book (Paperback, Hardcover, Audio CD and Audiobook also available)
Recommended Age: 0 to 5
Number of pages: 24
Ratings: 10/10
What’s there for the child to learn?
Besides a sweetly lyrical story with addictively rollicking rhymes and outstanding illustrations, “Room on the Broom” also displays a great message about kindness and friendship. Shaarav learned the importance of friendship and also that if you show kindness to others you shall too receive it in return at some point. It also teaches the values of loyalty and sharing.
As part of the bookish play we decided to have a storytelling session (read aloud) and do some book related activities. For the activities we decided to make a wand and a broomstick. We made the wand by cutting stars out of a chart paper and sticking it on a stick whereas for making the broomstick we went to the garden to collect twigs and sticks.
Later we also did some spot the differences, join the dots, make a mask and colour the pictures too. I’m sharing some of the printable that we collected here while age appropriate other activities can also be downloaded from roomonthebroom.com and gruffalo.com.
Our amazing find was a video of “Room on the Broom” on YouTube which Shaarav found very interesting. Altogether we had a fun time together and Shaarav really had a blast acting out the witch posing to fly on the broomstick that we made and muttering spells on everyone at home with the wand that we prepared. This post is a part of #BlogchatterA2Z challenge. Keep watching the space for our book recommendation for the alphabet C tomorrow and in case you missed our theme reveal for this year’s BlogchatterA2Z challenge you can check it out here. You could also check our book review with alphabet A from yesterday too for another great review and book related activities.
Love,
Mrs. Sunshine
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